Just when you thought it was safe.

So I spent some time talking to you all about the zoning issues in my area and how I thought that this wouldn’t really affect me. I could have been wrong. Here’s the beef:

As of a while ago (say about a year back, maybe three) the building height restriction in my area was 140 feet. Yes, that’s a freakin’ sky scrapper in this neighborhood and no one ever built that high, but you could’a if you’d been so inclined (and loaded). Then someone somewhere suddenly, (and as far as I can tell without asking anyone if they cared or agreed), reduced that building limit to 35 feet. This is as dramatic as it sounds, but it was a height based on the tallest building in the proposed area.

Everyone still tracking?

So, along comes the Bremerton Revitalization. Hundreds of Millions of Dollars are being channeled into the West Side of Bremerton and real-estate prospectors rejoice. But wait, 35 feet? When did that happen? I can’t get any developers to be interested in building a condo that is only 3 stories tall! This is a problem for condo builders, but not so much a problem for me as I own only one lot and would be just as happy rebuilding my house.

Still, someone realizes this height limitation might be a little unrealistic and so there is a proposal currently being discussed to raise the height to 60 feet. Developers probably still aren’t happy because in construction theory there’s a cut-off line for stick construction: about 4 stories. Any higher and you need to go concrete construction, which exponentially increases your building costs and to recoup those costs you need to build as high as you can. 60 feet is an ugly region; it’s higher than 4 stories but less than the recoup costs of concrete.

Additionally, 60 feet just sucks for me and is the potential “big” problem I discussed earlier. Here’s why. Say they raise the building height restrictions to 60 feet and the developer to the left of me builds 5 story condos and the land lord the right of me sells to a developer who builds 5 story condos and hey lets throw in some 5 story condos across the street… sound unreasonable? It’s not. The guy to the left of me is a developing fool with 10 abutting lots. He’s been the major push to get the height limits raised as it suits his best interest. The guy to the right of me owns 4 adjacent lots and that would attract a sizeable offer from a developer, maybe enough to get him to sell. Across the street is nothing but rentals and it’s waterfront… won’t be long before that’s chopped and redeveloped.

That leaves me with several problems. First, and most obvious, is the loss of my view… exactly what was supposedly being protected by the original height limitation. Also, this is a city zoning ordinance, but it won’t hold if there is a major economic boom here in Bremerton; that means if I spend money to remodel my current home and then the height limits are raised to 140 feet again I’ve got a house that is worth less than the property it stands on—i.e. I wasted money on a remodel.

The way I see it, there’s only two solutions. The first is the money-maker: raise the limits to the limit. 140 feet would put up a 12 story building on my lot that would bring in millions of dollars, literally. The Penthouse view would have views of Mt. Rainier to the South, Seattle to the East, the Cascades to the West, and the Port Washington Narrows to the North—that’s a heck’uva view!

The second solution is to limit the height of the buildings to 35 or 40 feet. But to do this I feel it is essential that the city give grants to residents who are willing to restore the neighborhood and the houses they live in, they city should lock their property taxes so that residents won’t be ousted from their homes because they can’t afford them, and someone should guaranteed loans for renovations. If the quaintness of the neighborhood and the residential feel is really important to Bremerton and Kitsap County, then they need to vest their interest by becoming involved and ensuring the residents that the city won’t turn tail and change decisions a couple of years down the line when it’s more advantageous to them.

There are no million-dollar homes in West Bremerton, yet; but it’s only a matter of time. Kitsap County has set the wheels in motion with the new conference center, the million dollar condos being built on the waterfront, and the attracting of new businesses to the area. For them to quash the individuals rights to develop is folly. I plan to write a letter to the editor of the newspaper discussing such and there is a meeting on the 9th of January on this very issue that I plan on attending.

I’ll keep you posted.